2006 Jens Olesen

The award has meant a lot to me and really has motivated me to increase my efforts to initiate and support activities that will make Hans Christian Andersen still more known, both in Brazil and in the other countries of Latin America. Among recent activities are the publishing and distribution of 12 million free copies of The Ugly Duckling to poor children of the North East Region; the establishment of Hans Christian Andersen Weeks in many schools and kindergartens all over Brazil, in a cooperation with the Brazil Ministry of Education; the performance of plays, based on Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales, in many cultural centres all over Brazil; the regular reading of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales on the radio and the broadcast of performances and adaptations of his fairy tales on different school, culture and other TV channels; the reprint of a complete edition of his fairy tales (2 million copies); in most schools activities related to Hans Christian Andersen have been established, and in many of them he is a firmly established part of the curriculum; the fantastic event of the Hans Christian Andersen samba show during the 2005 carnival, seen by 3 billion television viewers all over the world; in Brazil, we just know Hans Christian Andersen as ‘Andersen’, the storyteller known and beloved by all children, by young and old people alike; you may say that he is the most well-known author in Brazil, and the Brazilians feel that he is Brazilian, too. I am a great admirer of Hans Chris­tian Andersen, and the award will ­always motivate me to see the world with new eyes and meet its challenges with a positive and creative attitude. Long live Hans Christian Andersen!

Jens Olesen